Continuous heater for furnaces of high temperature.



PATENTED AUG. 8, 1905.

L. HOUZE & C. J. HURRLE. CNTINUOUS HEATER FOR PURNACES 0F HIGH TEMPERATURE.

APPLICATION FILED PEB.4,1905.

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No. 796,971. PATENTED AUG. 8, 1905. L. HOUZE & C. J'. HURRLE.

CONTINUOUS HEATER POR FURNACES OF HIGH TEMPERATURE. APPLICATION FILED FEB.4.1905.

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APPLICATION FILEQ.,FEB. 4, 1905.

344mm. .Luke Houle UNITED STATES lPATENT orrion.

LUKE HCUZE AND CHARLES J. HURRLE, OF STOCKTON, CALIFORNIA.

CONTINUOUS HEATER FOR FURNACES 0F HIGH TEMPERATURE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 8, 1905.

Application filed February 4, 1905. Serial No. 244,141.

To a/ZZ whom it may concern.:

Be it known that we, LUKE HoUZE and ,CHARLES J. HURRLE, citizens of the United States, residing at Stockton, in the county of San Joaquin and State of California, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Continuous Heaters for Furnaces of High Temperature; and we do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and the characters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

Our invention relates to improvements in furnaces of high temperature, and particularly to that class used in glass-making and the like; and it consists in the edective construction herein set forth.

Our object is to produce a continuous heater for said furnaces by means of which we may have a steady heat without the necessity of reversing the iires at stated intervals, as is now the case with most furnaces of the class mentioned. v

A further object is to reduce the amount of help required and also the cost of fuel in producing glass.

These objects we accomplish by the peculiar construction and relative arrangement of parts herein fully described, and particularly pointed out in the claims appended.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, in which similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several views.

Figure 1 is a vertical sectional View of one side of a glass-tank, showing our improvement applied thereto. The other side of the tank corresponds in all respects to the side shown in this figure. Fig. 2 is a sectional view of our improved device, taken relatively on a line fr of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a top plan View, partly broken out, of one side of a glass-tank with our improvement installedthereon. Fig. 4 is a sectional view of an improved burner used in connection with our device.

1 designates a melting-tank for glass-making. 2 is a gas-producer located at each side of the said tankrl, near the rear thereof, and 3 designates iiues .leading from each of said gas-producers into discharge-burners 4, which discharge into the said tank 1, the said discharge-burners being located on'each side of the said tank directly opposite to one another,

so that the two flames shooting across the tank meet each other and one resists the other, thus .keeping the heat equally distributed through the said tank.

5 designates dampers for the purpose of regulating the amount of gas introduced from the producers 2 to the flues 3.

6 designates cool-air chambers lying between the tank 1 and the producers 2 and are divided up into three compartments 7, 8. and 9, each of said compartments being provided with a sliding door 10. 11 is a flue or outlet leading from each side of said tank 1, near the front thereof, and into chambers 12. From hence iues 13 lead transversely over the said cool-air chambers 6, and thence into chambers 14, from which fines 15 lead to the draft-stack, said lues 13 being arranged in staggered position relatively to one another.

16 designates flues leading vertically between the flues 13 from the compartments of the chamber 6 intoa longitudinal chamber 17, which is closed at the front end and from the rear end of which flues 18 lead to the burners 4, said flues 18 partly inclosing the iiues 3.

The operation is as follows: The fire is started at the ends of the discharge-burners 4, and the heat from the burners on both sides of the tank passes directly into the tank 1, and the two iiames from the two corresponding burners on each side of said tank meet in the center of the tank and one resists the other, and thus the heat is equalized throughout the tank. This in itself is a very Valuable improvement, as in the old-style tanks where one set of fires burn on one side of the tank at a time the flame shoots across the tank and the alkali being thus forced against the sides of the tank causes the bricks to disintegrate, and thus the tank must be cooled and repaired very often, which causes much delay and loss. Further, in the glass-producing process heat is the greatest factor, and so when the fires are reversed every twenty minutes, as is the casein tanks now used, there is naturally much heat lost. With our device the tires may run an entire season withoutbeing extinguished. As the lire from the burners 4 rushes into the tank the draft draws the waste heat with great force through the Iiiues 11 and then into the chambers 12 and through the flues 13, and the cool air passing upward through 16 becomes superheated, and thus as it rushes into the burners 4 it mixes with the gas coming from the liues 3 and forms an intense heat, such as is required by furnaces of this character. The

purpose of the three compartments 7, 8, and 9 is this: As will be seen, the heat passing through the fiues I3 is naturally hotter near the front of the tank, from which it comes, than near the rear end. Thus the door l() of the part 7 may be opened widest and those in the parts 8 and 9 less in proportion, since where the most heat is there may be allowed to enter the most air to be heated.

By examining the drawings it can be clearly seen that the iiues carrying the waste heat or gases run parallel to the length of the furnace, while those carrying the cool air run at right angles to it. As each air-Hue lies directly above a waste-heat fiue and has another wasteheat flue directly above it, the air becomes heated to a high temperature and absorbs almost all of the heat of the waste gases. The joints between the flues are hermetically sealed and covered by a thickness of plain brick. Consequently there can be no leak or communication between the air-{iues and the wasteheat ues.

Our new system also protects to a great eX- tent the uX-stones of the tank, because the materials being melted are kept constantlyin the middle of the tank and the liquid salts are not forced against the sides.

Our new arrangement presents the advantage of a simple and economical construction and one which facilitates a more regular handling or working of the glass. The fact that the currents of air and gas are continuous makes it possible to regulate the heat of the furnace more closely than can be done when the direction is changed from time to time. This change always results in a momentary alteration in the heat due to the stopping for a time of the current of gas. There is also in the old type of furnace a possibility of the heat being affected by a partial stoppage of the openings in the checker-work due to the melting of the upper bricks, as above described.

Our device is not only adaptable for new tanks, but can be easily substituted for the old type of furnaces or tanks which are already built. It will consume natural gas` articial gas, or oil with equal success and will effect a saving of fuel in any case.

We have now entered into a detailed description of the construction and relative arrangement of parts embraced in the present and preferred embodiment of our invention. We do not Wish to be understood, however, as confining ourselves to such specific detail, as such changes and modifications may be made in practice as fairly fall within the scope of our claims.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new and useful, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

l. In a device of the character described, the combination of amelting-tank, a gas-producer lying alongside said tank and in communication therewith, discharge-burners interposed in the communicating conduit between the gas-producer and the melting-tank, alongitudinal cool-air chamber lying between the melting-tank and the gas-producer, and divided into a plurality of compartments, a plurality of rows of horizontally-disposed nues arranged in staggered relation above the cool-air compartments and in communication `at the rear end with the discharge-flue of the furnace. a vertical flue with which the other end of said horizontally-disposed Hue communicates, and in communication with a flue leading to the furnace, and flues leading from the chamber inwhich the horizontally-disposed flues are located and communicating with the conduit between the gas-producer and the melting-tank.

2. In a device of the kind described the combination of a melting-tank, a cool-air cham ber lying alongside each side of said tank, said chambers being divided up into a plurality of compartments each compartment being provided with a sliding door, vertical slots leading upward from said compartments to a longitudinal chamber from the rear end of which chamber iues lead to the dischargeburners of the said tank, and means for heatingthe cool air passing through the said vertical slots with the waste heat from the said tank, as set forth.

3. In a device of the kind described the combination of a melting-tank, a gas-producer lying along each side of said tank, flues leading from said gasproducers to dischargeburners entering the said tank near the rear thereof, dampers located in said iues, longitudinal cool-air chambers lying between the said tank and the said gas-producers, said chambers being divided into a plurality of compartments, each compartment being provided with a sliding door, a flue leading from the said tank near the front thereof and connected to longitudinal slots running in alternate rows over the said cool-air chambers, and suitably connected to the draft-stack, vertical slots leading alternately between the said longitudinal slots from the cool-air compartments and connected to longitudinal chambers lying above the said longitudinal slots, and flues leading from the said longitudinal chambers to the discharge-burners, said burners being arranged so that the flame from those on one side of the tank meets the ame from those on the other side, as specified.

In testimony whereof we have signed our names to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

LUKE HOUZE. CHARLES J. HURRLE. Witnesses:

PERCY S. WEBSTER, JosHUA B. WnBsTER. 

